All posts tagged ‘vampires’

It’s almost a tossup which classic horror monsters are more powerful these days: zombies or vampires. Zombies, relative newcomers to the horror world (unless you count Frankenstein’s monster, which I don’t), have been enjoying a bit of a renaissance this past decade or so, while vampires have remained pretty steadily popular for at least the past century. Fortunately, the two can easily coexist, since they’re such very different kinds of monster: zombies, mindless single-purpose killers who are only truly scary in hordes; and vampires, intelligent creatures who have often become cunning over the centuries they’ve lived, and are often quite scary enough in the singular.

Let me go on record by saying that when I think about stories involving the sinking of the Titanic, vampires and a good dose of horror don’t usually come to mind. I mean, seriously… the survivors of Titanic have just watched over a thousand of their fellow passengers perish in the cold Atlantic waters. Who would pull them out of the lifeboats onto the deck of the Carpathia and then have them have to deal with blood-thirsty vampires? Who would craft a horror story of Old World vampires taking advantage of hapless humans still in shock and suffering from hypothermia, thirst and hunger, and loss of loved ones? Who could even conceive of mixing the tragedy of the Titanic with the terror of the undead?

I’ll tell you the name of the author that could write this kind of tale. His name is Matt Forbeck. And, Lord have mercy, he’s one of us. A geek dad. And not just any geek dad. He’s a GeekDad contributor!

I’m a big fan of alternative fiction, so when I heard that Matt had a new book coming out that mixed the Titanic tragedy with a tale of vampires, I knew I had to give it a read. While I’m more of a science fiction reader, I still can dabble in other genres, and horror is one of those that I occasionally like to get into for a short period of time. So, I asked Angry Robot, Matt’s publisher, for a review copy of Carpathia and got down to reading.

When I interviewed television and comic writer Brandon Easton in October about his upcoming graphic novel Shadowlaw, I was intrigued by his description of an alternate history where the Catholic Church has taken over control of the world, supposedly to bring everyone into the faith and protect it from evil. But all is not as it appears with the church hierarchy and its enemies, and it becomes difficult if not impossible to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys.

The book sounded great but it also seemed a weighty idea and I wondered if all the world building would overwhelm the action.

I needn’t have worried. This story is one of the best I’ve read at integrating eye-popping action sequences and backstory. The pacing never slows down and the story never sags.

Once I started reading my review copy, I couldn’t stop until I reached the end. The plot kept surprising me in a good way. I had to find out what was really going on, I worried for the main character’s physical and emotional well-being, and I became invested to the point where I was bummed when the story ended and I didn’t have more.

I hesitate to go into details without giving away spoilers but the basic plot is that Rictor Caesario, the foster son of one of the church’s most prominent members, makes a decision during his mission to pacify a local uprising that changes his life and throws him right in the middle of the struggle between the New Earth Alliance run by the Church and its opponents, both seen and unseen.

Rictor is what holds the narrative together as readers view the story entirely through his eyes, which means whenever he’s surprised, so are we. He’s a great mix of being a confident, almost cocky fighter, and a sometimes confused person of faith.

Apparently the folks marketing the upcoming movie The Muppets have decided they aren’t completely done with parodies, even if they’re not making the video kind at the moment. They’ve just released the “Muppet Saga” posters, which are ever-so-slightly reminiscent of characters in a certain movie series, the fourth installment of which opens this Friday.

I have only three things to add:

1. The movies in question would be immeasurably improved if these posters actually represented their main characters.

It’s almost a tossup which classic horror monsters are more powerful these days: zombies or vampires. Zombies, relative newcomers to the horror world (unless you count Frankenstein’s monster, which I don’t), have been enjoying a bit of a renaissance this past decade or so, while vampires have remained pretty steadily popular for at least the past century. Fortunately, the two can easily coexist, since they’re such very different kinds of monster: zombies, mindless single-purpose killers who are only truly scary in hordes; and vampires, intelligent creatures who have often become cunning over the centuries they’ve lived, and are often quite scary enough in the singular.

When a friend approached me about the possibility of interviewing Brandon Easton about his new graphic novel, Shadowlaw, and described it as priests versus vampires, well, that was too enticing to turn down. The Catholic Church, which teaches to repress human sexuality save for procreation, and vampires, the ultimate fantasy expression of sexuality.

Shadowlawis set in a future in which the Catholic Church is in charge of the struggle against the vampire lords. The Church creates a caste of soldiers who are at the forefront of the struggle. One of those warriors, Rictor, is our point of view character and he quickly discovers that light versus dark is a false premise and instead the struggle is far more complicated.

The story is a genre mix, which I love, combining science fiction, horror and military elements.

Easton is also a screenwriter with credits on the new ThunderCats television show and has a podcast for beginning screenwriters and comic writers. I asked Easton about the concepts behind Shadowlaw, how he broke into screenwriting and about what writers should know about breaking into the comics or screenwriting business.

GeekDad: What drew you to a story that featured the Catholic Church in a struggle with vampires?

Brandon Easton: It was an amalgamation of a variety of my creative influences as well as a kind of rumination on the nature of power, government and religion. The original concept dealt with a chase adventure through a ruined landscape. Like if you mixed Book of Eli with The Lost Boys.

Watching a new episode of Phineas and Ferb is, of course, always a great time. But when they do a Halloween-themed episode, it’s even better, and the new one tonight is even more fun than the ones from previous years. Not only is it substantially weirder than usual, but they also snagged some pretty impressive guest stars!

There are, as usual, two stories in tonight’s episode. The first part (see image above), titled “That’s the Spirit!”, sees the boys encounter a father and son, voiced by Michael Douglas and his real-life son Dylan, who are convinced their house is haunted. While the boys help “bust” the ghosts, Dr. Doofenshmirtz accidentally transforms himself into a were-cow. Yes, a were-cow.

The second part (see image below), titled “The Curse of Candace,” has Candace see a movie about a teen girl named Kristen, a werewolf named Michael, and a vampire named Jared. (It’s just possible it’s meant to remind viewers of a certain real movie series named after a time of day.) Michael the werewolf is, most appropriately, voiced by Michael J. Fox — if you don’t know why that’s appropriate, apart from the name, you’re probably under 30, and you’re quite possibly better off not knowing. Kristen is voiced by Anna Paquin and Jared by Stephen Moyer, which casting is pretty cool for fans of True Blood. Anyway, back to the plot: After seeing the movie Candace is attacked by a bat and, of course, begins freaking out because she’s convinced she’s becoming a vampire. Meanwhile Dr. Doofenshmirtz tries to transform the Tri-State Area into a facsimile of his homeland of Gimmelshtump so it will be, he thinks, easier to conquer.

Overview: A permanent darkness has fallen over the earth, and with it have come the creatures of the night: vampires and werewolves, as well as the hunters who stalk them. Nightfall is deck-building with a vengeance — the goal is to give as many wounds as you can to the other players by attacking them with your minions or playing vicious actions on them.

Players: 2 to 5

Ages: 12 and up

Playing Time: 45 minutes

Retail: $39.99

Rating: Fast and furious (these aren’t your sparkling vampires).

Who Will Like It? If your favorite cards in Dominion are the attack cards, or if you wish Thunderstone let you beat up on the other players instead of just the monsters in the dungeon, then Nightfall may be just the game you’re looking for.

Even if you haven’t read any of them, you’ve probably seen or heard of the spate of books adding some sort of legendary monster to classic works of literature. The trend of course began in 2009 with the publication of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which was a huge hit and made publishers realize how easy it would be to take existing works of fiction that were in the public domain and simply add the horror element to them.

Of course, the trend rapidly became, as all such trends do, clichéd, mostly because the books being used as source material were such obvious choices. Here, then, is a list of our top ten suggestions for new stories in the same genre:

10. A Farewell to Arms – Kinda takes on new meaning if the main characters are zombies, doesn’t it?

9. Crime and Eternal Punishment - You think Raskolnikov had a hard time dealing with life after the murder he commits? Now suppose his victim became a zombie and pursued him even to his penal servitude in Siberia. Dostoevsky is probably rolling over in his grave at the thought, but the good thing about this kind of consideration is that rolling over in a grave is completely appropriate.

8. Vampire Catcher in the Rye - Holden Caulfield would have been much more interesting if he’d been a vampire. Of course, any change would probably make him more interesting.

7. Adventures of Tomb Sawyer and Hucklezombie Finn – You know how in Tom Sawyer, Huck and Tom watch their own funeral, and how in Huck Finn Huck fakes his own death to get away from his father? Well, what if they had really died?

6. How to Eat Friends and Consume People – Dale Carnegie’s famous book adapted for the zombie demographic.

5. Charlotte’s Giant Web – Sure, Charlotte is a friendly, helpful spider in E.B. White’s classic novel. But what if she were a giant pig-eating spider, writing that she’d eaten “some pig” and found it “terrific?”

4. To Kill a Mockingbird Again – Yeah, I know, there’s no actual mockingbird in the book. But what if there were a giant, zombie mockingbird terrorizing Maycomb? That would be freakin’ awesome.

3. Lord of the Giant Flies – The only thing missing in this classic tale? Giant radioactive insects capturing and eating the boys, which works really well with author William Golding’s hints that there’s a nuclear war going on in the world.

2. Frankenstein (and His Perfectly Normal Human Son) – In which Victor Frankenstein’s marries and has a son, therefore never having the time or motivation to create his monster. You’ve got to change things up now and then in any genre.

1. Blood War: The Twilight novel where the REAL vampires show up - and kick Edward’s sparkly emo ass from here to Transylvania. (Yes, I know, the Twilight novels aren’t classics. But I just had to put this one in because it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.)

(My thanks to Ken Denmead for suggesting the Catcher in the Rye and Frankenstein ideas.)

Ok, aside from making you feel old, Buffy’s birthday this year also marks the release of Buffy the Vampire Slayer #40 (pictured here, with my crudely added party hats), the final issue of Season 8. While I haven’t followed all of Season 8—admittedly, I have some of Season 7 on DVD left to watch—I find it an interesting way to continue a television show after it’s no longer on TV. (Caprica and SGU, are you listening?)